Christian just got back from AI4 in Vegas, and the trade show floor was a wall of slogans that meant nothing: "the AI governance moat for this," "the context layer for that." So the team asks the obvious question: is this a bubble or is the market just this saturated with AI right now? Martin makes the case that both are true at once. Colin compares it to the NFT gold rush. Then they get practical: how do you actually tell a real AI product from a marketing costume, and what's the first move a manufacturing client should make before hiring anyone to "do AI" for them?

Martin, Colin, and Christian are back after a short break to break down Stripe's $7B acquisition of OpenRouter, and why a payments company wanted a model router in the first place. Colin digs into OpenRouter founder Alex Atallah's track record (he sold OpenSea near its peak too), and the three debate whether Stripe is trying to get closer to the agentic economy before agents become the primary users of software.

Then the conversation shifts to something Lattice has been seeing firsthand in client interviews. Non-technical employees are vibe coding tools that have become critical to their day-to-day work, sometimes five different people at the same company independently building the same thing. They talk through what that means for engineering hiring (up, not down), why "PM-engineer" might be the highest-demand role right now, and the strange position companies land in when an intern's side project becomes infrastructure nobody else knows how to maintain.

Colin, Christian, and Martin dig into the viral story of Medv, the 1 employee startup on track for $1.8B in sales, and what it signals about how AI is reshaping company structure (and the hype vs. reality behind the headline). Then they zoom in on software: AI is shipping code faster than humans can review it, so quality, security, and reliability are quickly becoming the real bottlenecks.

How big is AI’s climate tab, really?

This week on AI Playbook, Martin Anquetil, Christian Yeghnazar, and Colin McDonnell sit down with Landon Brand, co-founder and CEO of Wren, to talk about where AI and climate actually collide: carbon accounting, data center emissions, and the often-ignored water bill.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:18 Who Wren is and what it actually does

04:12 Carbon accounting basics (what gets counted, what gets missed)

08:05 The hidden water bill behind AI and data centers

12:10 Where data center emissions really come from

16:45 What “clean energy mandates” could look like in practice

21:30 How AI can speed up renewable project development

27:05 Funding vetted climate projects, trust, and verification

32:40 Ethical data sourcing and accountability

38:15 Job displacement, new roles, and what “responsible AI” means here

43:50 Non-negotiables for data centers going forward

48:05 Rapid-fire: practical steps for teams and individuals

50:10 Wrap

Guest: Landon Brand (Wren)

Hosts: Martin Anquetil, Christian Yeghnazar, Colin McDonnell

Episode 4: The Lattice Partners team break down how they run their AI consulting firm and product studio, and why the best AI lives inside your workflows.

Featuring: Martin Anquetil (https://x.com/anquetil) • Christian Yeghnazar (https://x.com/yeggic) • Colin McDonnell (https://x.com/colinmcdz)

Show Notes:

(0:00) Intro + what Lattice actually does day to day

(4:20) Why “AI in the workflow” beats another standalone tool

(9:10) Randy, a task-running AI agent for internal ops

(16:40) Quick Ticket, a Chrome extension for turning UI moments into tickets fast

(23:30) How internal tooling changes speed, quality, and client delivery

(30:50) The piece that still matters most: human relationships

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The AI Playbook is created and produced by Lattice Partners in Los Angeles, CA.

Reach out for a free AI audit of your company: https://latticepartners.ai

Episode 3: The Lattice Partners team discuss AI adoption and revenue-generating agents.

Featuring: Martin Anquetil (https://x.com/anquetil) • Christian Yeghnazar (https://x.com/yeggic) • Colin McDonnell (https://x.com/colinmcdz)

Show Notes:

(0:00) Intro + the career fair reality check

(4:30) Only 16% have used AI

(10:20) Why AI feels ubiquitous (even when adoption is still early)

(17:40) Jobs, displacement, and where the opportunities may be

(26:10) From copilots to agents: what changes when AI takes actions

(33:30) The rise of autonomous, revenue-generating online ventures

(41:50) Takeaways: how to think about adoption + preparing for what’s next

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Links & Articles Mentioned:

AI Agents Making Money: https://x.com/felixcraftai/status/2025280904088682857?s=46

2028 Global Crisis Thought Piece: https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic

Citadel Rebuttal Piece: https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-global-intelligence-crisis/

Agent Harnesses: https://x.com/allanyu_/status/2026778091301826832?s=46

AI Adoption: https://x.com/colinmcdz/status/2021069311792783610/photo/1

https://x.com/yeggic/status/2027114795577798901?s=20

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The AI Playbook is created and produced by Lattice Partners in Los Angeles, CA.

Most companies are still struggling to understand how AI agents can genuinely transform their operations, but the big shift is happening now, with crypto wallets enabling AI to pay for itself and handle real-world transactions seamlessly. If you're curious about what’s next for AI-powered business, this episode uncovers the emerging world where agents go beyond simple automation to fund, buy, and grow autonomously all without traditional bank accounts.

Reach out for a free AI audit of your company: https://latticepartners.ai

Episode 1: The Lattice Partners team (https://x.com/partnerslattice) debate the shift from humans hiring agents, to agents hiring humans.

Featuring: Martin Anquetil (https://x.com/anquetil) • Christian Yeghnazar (https://x.com/yeggic) • Colin McDonnell (https://x.com/colinmcdz)

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Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(2:15) Chatbots → agent swarms

(8:40) Real-world examples of AI + human workflows

(15:05) Governance + risk in AI-native operations

(22:30) Operating model + talent implications

(31:10) Tooling + vendor strategy

(38:20) Metrics + ROI

(44:00) Key learnings